Former Contra Costa County public defender clerk charged...

1of 22A former employee for the Contra Costa County public defender’s office has been charged with murder, court records show.Photo: /

2of 22Click through to see violent crimes reported by Bay Area cities in 2016, starting with the cities that reported the highest incidents of violent crime. Statistics from the FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2016.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

A former employee of the Contra Costa County public defender’s office has been charged with murder, court records show.

William Melvin Edwards Jr. is due in court on Sept. 18 on counts of murder and conspiracy to commit a crime. He did not enter a plea in his initial court appearance Tuesday.

Prosecutors are accusing Edwards, 38, of Richmond, of killing a man he thought was testifying against gang members in an attempted-murder case.

Contra Costa County Public Defender Robin Lipetzky said Edwards worked as a seasonal clerk for the public defender’s office until October 2017, when he left to take another job.

Court documents allege Edwards staked out 22-year-old Taison Calderon-Lopez’s house in North Richmond around 5:30 a.m. on June 1, and about an hour later shot him to death as he walked to his work truck.

In 2006, Edwards was sentenced to prison for manslaughter in a similar case of witness murder in Oakland, and in 2016 after serving his time and getting the job at the public defender’s office he presented himself on social media as a reformed man who wanted to serve as an inspiration.

Ashley McBride covers breaking news on The Chronicle's metro desk as a Hearst Journalism Fellow. Previously, she worked as an interactive learning producer and editor at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., and as a web producer at the Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Fla. She graduated with a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University and completed her bachelor's degree at the University of Miami. A Tampa, Fla., native, Ashley enjoys cooking, reading and listening to podcasts in her spare time.